


bioluminescence

by RunawayCaboose



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Canon Trans Character, F/M, Gratuitous Science, M/M, Photography, Trans Barry, Trans Male Character, oceanography
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2017-10-26
Packaged: 2019-01-23 18:41:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12513868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RunawayCaboose/pseuds/RunawayCaboose
Summary: the twins are geniuses. they really are, they're so smart, they're researchers. their studies should be fulfilling, but they're not, not really. there's something missing, something lacking in their lives, something they can't remember to miss.





	bioluminescence

They’re scientists. They shouldn’t be, really, that’s so unexpected. Why not models? Why not artists? Why scientists? If you asked them, they’d look side-eyed at each other, shrug, mumble something that sounds so smart, but is near incomprehensible about the ocean and a calling and an instinct.

They’re scientists and they study the ocean. Bioluminescence, to be precise. There’s just something about the ocean and the creatures that live in it and the dark underneath, so ingenuitive, so resourceful, that they create their own light. They’re a lot like humans. There’s a certain  _ je ne sais quoi  _ about deep ocean life. That’s how people would describe the twins.

It’s hard to describe them. They defy descriptions, they circumvent everything, labels peel off of them like cheap stickers on plastic plates. They’re geniuses, truly. Taako showed up to his masters classes in high heels and night gowns, but he has a doctorate. He never uses it, but he has a doctorate. Lup spends her classes writing, not notes, no, at least not for the class. Notes on her research in a made-up language only she and her brother can decode. If you could read them, you’d be amazed. She’s a genius. Her notes are incredibly in depth and specific, but they’ve got nothing to do with the class she’s in. There’s no relation between inferential statistics and the migratory patterns of saltwater shrimp, but there she is. Scribbling. 

They’re both so incredibly, overwhelmingly smart. Smart to the point where they think too much, they get stuck in their own heads far too easily. There’s a reason they’re joined at the hip. There’s a reason they believe they only have each other.

They do most of their research on their own, solitary in their solidarity. It’s not research done in a lab, really, it’s done in libraries, poring over old books and accounts of bioluminescent creatures. Research on something that shouldn’t exist, on something that doesn’t exist, its only presence being in fisherwife tales and stories of seamen hundreds of years old. The last sighting, the last recorded sighting, in 1923. A man on a boat, alone, was caught in a storm. He almost died, he would’ve died, but then he heard the chimes, heavy and deep and resonating. He saw the ripples on the water. Despite the clouds heavy and leaking in the sky, he saw the stars reflected in the water and there it was: the Voidfish.

It becomes the center of their research, this mysterious creature. This creature that defies every odd, every obstacle, every law of nature. This creature that on all accounts simply shouldn’t exist. Maybe the twins feel a certain kinship with it, but there’s something entrancing about it. It sounds beautiful, the chiming and the descriptions. 

Research is grueling and hard and there is so little there to find, but they find everything. Lup pins maps to the walls of the apartment, tracking ocean currents in dark blue marker, shoals of fish and small crustaceans with different coloured push pins. She marks sightings with stickers, the kind a teacher would give to a kindergarten class. She marks economic evolution, sites of industry on the coastline, she marks every variable. There are so many maps. 

Taako doesn’t do maps, he likes them, sure, but Lup is better at them. Taako focuses on collection. He quantifies the data, the variables, the descriptions and the testimonies. He spends so much time thinking. His dreams are in numbers. Waking and sleeping, he’s trying to figure it out. It’s a big puzzle, the pieces scattered across books and poorly recorded family histories, Taako wants to solve it. 

The twins, they work, mostly, together in their apartment. They make coffee and read and map and discuss and make more coffee. Taako doesn't mind it, spending so much time with his sister, but sometimes she gets a little… Restless. 

She’s making coffee when she brings it up.

“Taako… Do you ever feel, like, a deep longing?” She stirs, spoon hitting the ceramic. “Like, you’re a sweater that got caught on a nail and it’s pulling and unravelling?” 

“Fuck, Lup, I dunno.” Taako shrugs, head lolling. “Not really. Why, Lup? You feelin’ lonely? You lookin’ to get it on?”

“Shut up.” Lup rolls her eyes, but she’s smiling fondly. 

“You should go to a singles’ night at the bar around the corner.” Taako advises. It’s half a joke, half a suggestion. He lapses back into silence, settling back into his book. Lup continues stirring, pensive, considering. 

Taako doesn’t notice when she leaves that night, wearing his platforms and fishnets, he’s still deep in his book.

He does notice, though, when she comes back. He probably wouldn’t’ve if she was alone, but there’s a man giggling in their foyer, and they both come stumbling in. They’re clingy and tipsy and Lup is playing with the buttons on the man’s button-up shirt and his glasses are crooked on his nose. 

“Hey, Taako.” Lup greets him, laughing, she’s draped over the man’s shoulders. “We’re gonna, uh, we’re gonna hang out, dude. This is, uh, this is Barry. We met at single’s night.”

“Hi.” Barry says, his face is flushed red. He doesn’t have much chance to say anything else before Lup drags him into her bedroom, shutting the door behind her. Taako sinks back into his book. 

He wakes up on the couch the next morning, book open on his chest and there’s a cup of coffee next to him on the coffee table. There’s someone in the kitchen, rummaging.

“Thanks, Lup.” He calls out, fingers closing around the warm mug.

“Uh, not Lup, but sure, bud.” It’s Barry, from last night, stepping into the living room. “Lup wanted to sleep late, so she told me how you liked your coffee.” Taako narrows his eyes. “Uh, I mean. I can leave? But Lup sort of wanted me to stay, I think.”

“That’s fine, Barold.” Taako’s voice is quiet, reserved, he’s figuring out who this man is. This goofy, chubby, red-faced man. “You can stay.” Barry stands for a moment, fingers tapping against the mug he’s holding. It’s Lup’s favourite mug. “Do you want to watch Wheel of Fortune?” He doesn’t wait for an answer, turning it on. Barry murmurs the answers under his breath. 

Barry just sort of. Slides into their lives. He slots in, like a key in a lock. He just starts hanging around the apartment until he’s almost living there. 

Barry isn’t really good at oceanography. At all. He tries to understand, tries to help Lup put points on the maps, but he’s off by three degrees and then the triangulation is ruined and Lup has to start over. He feels so bad, he holds push pins for her for a week. He’s a science nerd, sure, of course he is, but he’s a photographer. He has countless cameras, cheap ones from garage sales, expensive ones from the Canon website, and so much film. He knows the chemical composition needed to take blackbox photos, he has a wetplate camera from 1872, he uses lavender scented resin to seal it, he sets up a makeshift darkroom in the kitchen. There are pictures tacked to the wall alongside the maps, polaroids and prints, so many of Taako and Lup together, only a few of him. The ones he’s in are blurry for the most part, taken when Taako was able to wrestle the camera from his hands and snap a few shots. They’re not good pictures in any way, shape, or form, but they mean something. 

And then Barry just… Doesn’t leave. 

And they learn more things about each other.

Barry is bisexual, he’s an amateur magician. His favourite flowers are Miltonia simply because they’re called Milt for short. Barry drinks his coffee black with vanilla extract (it’s disgusting). He has a passionate, unironic love for jorts. He’s amazing at Monopoly and he wins everytime. He has scars on his chest and he doesn’t like to talk about his childhood. He likes apple butter more than peanut butter. He’s allergic to almonds. He says ‘lmao’ out loud instead of laughing, he pronounces every letter. He’s also a fucking nerd. 

But he’s their nerd. Or, Lup’s nerd, more like. He’s Taako’s friend, though Taako is hardpressed not to admit it.

The twins’ research continues. Barry tries to help, but he’s not great at anything like this. Taako has sifted through every tome and book he could get his hands on, anything with any information pertaining to the voidfish, and the east coast of Lup’s map of the United States is dotted with push pins. That’s where they have to go. That’s the next step in research. They’ve gathered all the background information there is to gather, Lup has mapped out everything she can, it’s time to gather data. 

They don’t set out just yet, it’s not a ‘drop everything and go’ kind of moment. It’s a ‘let’s study the migratory patterns of krill and shrimp in relation to temperature and the moon cycle so we don’t waste our time on a bogus trip’ kind of moment. Taako reads more books and Barry helps Lup install a map app on her phone so she doesn’t have to spend as much money on pins and red thread. She does still like the physical representations, though. They study small ecosystems in local lakes, making sure they’ve got everything just right. It would take a lot to sustain a creature as large as the voidfish is supposed to be. Their best bet is still the east coast, it’s verified by their research, the currents line up and the lunar cycle is just right right now and any small fishing town with a little fishing economy, but not a large enough one to deplete the shoals would be a perfect place. The town from the 1923 sighting is still the best option. 

They pack everything they need into Barry’s 2000 Volkswagen Golf. They listen to terrible cassette tapes Lup found at the flea market and Barry doesn’t trust either of them to drive, so he drives the whole way. Barry’s voice cracks when he sings, but so does Taako’s, although that may just be theatrics, an act put on for Barry’s comfort. 

They eat too much fast food and Taako buys energy drinks at every service station they stop at. The AC breaks halfway through the trip and they can’t stop to get it fixed, they have everything timed so perfectly, so Barry just rolls the windows down and floors it on the expressways. Lup thinks he’s hot when he drives and tries to makeout with him while they’re parked, Taako asleep in the backseat. Lup ends up leaning on the horn and Taako wakes up so suddenly, he hits his head on the window.  

The journey isn’t bad, even if Barry won’t stop calling it a quest. Lup does get to stab Barry in the leg with a needle though, and she counts that as his comeuppance. 

They get to the town early in the morning, exactly as Lup had plotted it out. It’s hazy and foggy, the sun is rising, but it hasn’t burnt off any of the mist yet. Barry parks, albeit poorly, and they roll out. It’s an odd pairing, Taako and Lup in their bright colours against the early morning, juxtaposed against this sleepy little town. Deciduous trees line the buildings. 

There’s one building in particular, a little shop with a boat painted on its side. 

“I mean, it’s probably your best bet for finding a boat around here.” Barry points out, urging the twins towards the shop. “Unless you just want to go hang around by the docks and get bitten by a couple of seagulls.” 

They do end up going into the shop, a bell chimes above the door as they do. The shop doesn’t quite seem like a shop, it’s chock full of… Stuff. Just a lot of stuff. There’s no order, no theme, it looks like someone put every one of their belongings into a box and shook it up. There’s a dog laying on the floor, he doesn’t lift his head up as they come in, but his tail bobs.

“Can I help you?” There’s a voice from between the precariously arranged shelves and out steps a tall man. He looks too tall for this shop, he doesn’t belong here, but he’s wearing an apron and his sleeves are bunched up and he does seem to know what he’s doing. “Oh, uh, you’re- there’s a lot of you, aren’t there?”

“I mean, there’s three of us, dude. Maybe nobody wants to come in your mix and match, grab bag shop, but surely you’ve seen more than three people before, right?” Taako asks, Barry looks mortified, Taako just insulted this man in his own store. The man, though, seems unfazed and he laughs, throaty, letting his head fall back. 

“Oh, of course, I just usually don’t see this many people this early in the morning.” He grins, shows his teeth, he seems friendly. He seems like he belongs in the South more than the Northeast Corridor. “I’m Magnus, who are you travelers?”

“I’m Lup, that’s Taako, and resident nerd, Barry.” Lup greets him, holding her hand out in a gesture that prompts Magnus to kiss the back of it. He doesn’t, though, just twists his hand around awkwardly so he can shake hers. “We’re lookin’, searchin’ for a boat to rent.”

“You want to go on a joyride?” Magnus’ brow furrows.

“Ah, nah, fella, we can’t drive a boat, is that even the word? What do you do to a boat? And don’t say fuckin’, Lup, I know you’re thinking about it.” Taako chides and Lup snickers, covering her mouth. “We need a boat and someone to drive a boat to a place with us and then bring it back and then do it again. Is that, like, chill or whatever?”

“I mean, I could take you out on my boat.” Magnus shrugs like it’s not a big deal, like it happens all the time, like strangers just come into his shop and nearly bully him into letting them onto his boat. “So, like, now or what?”

“More like nine thirteen tonight.” Lup doesn’t need to consult her timetable, she has this portion memorized. “Does that work with you? It sort of, is what needs to happen.

“Uh, yeah, sounds fine.” Magnus chuckles. “Is there a reason it has to be then?”

“You’ll see.” Taako winks, holding a finger to his mouth. Magnus blinks.

“So, you- you want me to be quiet or-? I’m sorry, this is sort of confusing.” He doesn’t sound bashful at all, his voice sounds like sunlight and golden ichor. He sounds like an old god, or at least a god from an old world. There’s something about him, magnetic, Taako doesn’t know if the other two feel it, but he does. He’s pulled to Magnus, not attracted, per say, but there’s something there. A tug on the very threads of his soul. Like a sweater caught on a nail. This pull is, it’s nearly gravitational. Maybe Magnus is an old world. “Do you want me to, like, show you around town in the meantime? Show you where you can get a room, if you’re gonna stay for a while.” Taako is snapped out of his revery. 

“Uh, fuck no, loser, what do I want with traipsin’ around a dumb town for six hours, I’ve been stuck in a car with these losers for days.” Taako is trying to make it up to himself, balance out his reverence with irreverence. Awe is something he feels rarely. With Barry and Lup, sure, but they deserve it, they do, his beautiful family. This random man, this random shop-owning, apron-wearing man doesn’t. Taako’s not sure why he feels this way. 

“Hey, Taako, c’mon.” Barry pulls on his sleeve lightly. It’s not the same. “Y’know, not everyone writes down their histories, and since this town is… Special, you might be able to find out some more things.” He winks. It’s unnecessary. Taako huffs.

“Fine.” He grumbles. “I will, begrudgingly, allow it.” Magnus grins, far too widely for someone who has just been ‘allowed’ to show three people around town.

The mist has all but burnt away by the time they step outside. Magnus has taken off his apron, he left in inside the store, and he leads the three down the street, which he describes as Main Street, but it doesn’t look like a hub of enterprise.

There are houses on Main Street, a few here and there. Actually, as they progress further down it, they realize that Main Street is almost all houses. Apart from Magnus’ shop (which Taako realizes may actually be his house), a few scattered storefronts, and a diner at the end of the street.

They’re halfway through the main street tour when something catches Taako’s eyes. It’s a small house, almost like a cottage, tucked away behind some other buildings. It’s barely visible from where he is, he has to squint to see it. It’s bright yellow, trim and shutters painted a verdant green. The drapes are a dark purple, a plum colour, really.

“Magnus.” Taako says, interrupting the taller man’s spiel about the history of brick use. Not even the history of brick use in this town, the entire history of bricks being used everywhere. “Who lives there?” He points towards the cottage. Magnus’ face darkens for just a second, so briefly, and then he’s smiling again, but the gold is less impressive, less lustrous. 

“Oh, no one. Nobody. Not anymore, at least. It’s been… Nine years. Nine years since anyone lived there. But we take turns, you know, keeping it clean, the community does.” Magnus chuckles, running his hands through his hair. His words feel oddly heavy. “It hurts to see an empty house, you know?” Magnus chuckles, it sounds wrong. “Maybe that’s just because I built it.” There’s an awkward silence, Magnus has stopped walking. He clears his throat, blinks, throws a hand out and points at a tall church. “That’s Merle’s church, he preaches every Sunday even though almost no one comes, especially when no one comes.”

“How do you know that?” Barry wonders. “If no one comes, I mean, how do you know?”

“Oh, you don’t have to be in the church to hear it then.” Magnus laughs and it sounds righter this time. “He just got Johan to agree to play on some Sundays, though! That’s cool! Johan does refuse to play hymns, though, so I don’t know how that’ll work out, but he’s good. He’s very good. Very good, I’d make you hear him play, but he’s probably still asleep and the last time I woke him up this early, he nearly killed me. Anyway, I mean, come in here.” They’ve reached the end of the street, the diner, Magnus pushes the door open for them. 

There’s no bell that chimes, but the creaking noise that sounds as the door swings is alert enough. There’s a jukebox in the corner, playing a song that’s only barely unrecognizable. There’s a boy sitting at the counter, kicking his legs and eating an omelette. He drops his fork as they come in and slides off of the stool.

“Oh! Hello, sirs! Hello, ma’am!” He’s nearly bouncing, rolling back and forth on the balls of his feet. “I’m Angus McDonald, it’s a pleasure to see you!”

“Hey, chill out, little man.” Lup laughs, smiling widely. This kid just seems so precious. 

“Heya, Angus.” Magnus greets him, ruffling his hair. Angus smiles, toothily would be the right way to describe it, but it seems as though he’s just lost his front tooth. “How the hell are ya?”

“Pretty fucking good, sir!” Angus chirps, he’s smiling so widely.

“Language.” The woman from the counter calls, none of the three have noticed her before. She’s busy, scribbling down in a notebook, papers strewn across the counter next to her.

“Oh, you busy, Lucretia?” Magnus sidles up to her, winking to the three standing just inside the doorway. Angus is still grinning, he looks full to the bursting with joy. “Too busy to make your best pal an omelette?” Lucretia doesn’t wake up. “Oh, come on, you made one for Angus!”

“I made it myself, sir!” Angus says. “It’s absolutely terrible! You know I’m not allowed to turn the oven on by myself, so I got Johan to do it before he went to bed, but then…” Angus frowns. “He turned it on too high and I couldn’t turn it any lower, I’m not allowed to touch the knobs, and it got pretty dang burnt.” He sounds and resembles a kicked puppy.

“Oh, don’t worry, little dude, I’ll hook your shit up!” Taako all but vaults over the counter, he hasn’t had a chance to cook in days. He whips up some good omelettes, the best omelettes he’s ever made, Angus looks at him like he hung the stars in the sky, entranced. 

“Wow, sir! Maybe one day I can turn on the oven like you can!” Angus remarks, he has his fork grasped tightly in his hand.

“Don’t dream too big, dude, you’ll split your melon!” Taako laughs, but Angus looks mildly horrified, like he’s seriously entertaining the possibility. 

“Are there any rooms open, Lucretia?” Magnus asks the woman, he has egg in his sideburns, somehow.

“I mean, probably, unless seven other people somehow came into town and started sleeping there.” She looks up from her journals for the first time. “Oh, wait, I’m sorry, Johan is trying out a new sleep schedule where he changed rooms every forty three minutes, so they’re all full, sometimes. What do you think, Magnus? Of course there are open rooms.”

Magnus does show them to a room, it’s up a solid oak staircase that Magnus claims to have built. The room has one bed with three quilts, all delicately and intricately switched. The three have no qualms about sleeping in the same bed together. Lup sleeps in the middle, an arm around both of her boys. 

Magnus has the boat ready that night when the three make their way onto the docks. His boat is small, but it’s nice, neat, much neater than the store he owns. He’s good at driving the boat, or boating, as he explains in a particularly long-winded speech.

They come to a stop where Lup directs him, marking the spot on a handheld GPS. Taako dips a thermometer into the water and reads it out, sixty-two degrees. It’s unlikely that they’ll see anything tonight, but they stay there for hours, engine off, moon bright above. Magnus passes around a thermos of warm apple cider. Barry takes pictures.

They do the same thing the next night. And the next. There’s nothing. Absolutely nothing. The water doesn’t even have any fish near the surface. Something is off about this whole place.

But the fourth night, the fourth night the water is sixty four degrees and they’re being a little more rowdy. Yeah, Magnus might have spiked the cider with rum, but they all know about it and it makes the edges of things so pleasantly hazy. 

“So, tell me, why are you here?” Magnus isn’t drunk, he’s not drunk at all. He looks concerned, worried, his eyes shifting in the near-dark.

“The voidfish.” It just slips out, Taako can’t stop it. Lup stares at him, agape, they weren’t supposed to tell anyone, it was a pact they made a long time ago. Barry shifts, nervously.

“Oh.” Magnus sits back. “The voidfish. Are you- are you sure?” Taako nods, there’s no point in lying now. “Wow, okay, so you remembe-”

His words are cut off as the boat is flipped entirely upside down.

Taako is in the water and he’s sinking and he sees Lup, struggling to pull up Barry, he never could swim. Magnus isn’t anywhere. Moonlight looks so strange when filtered through water. The last thing that Taako sees before his vision goes dark is tentacles, tentacles dotted with stars, wrapping around his arms. He opens his mouth to say its name, to greet it, and the last of his air drifts upward in bubbles. Everything goes dark.

He wakes up with a start, sitting upright. Magnus is next to him and he looks different. Not markedly so, but enough. He seems clearer, sharper, he seems similar. He seems familiar. 

“Oh, fuck.” Taako says, Magnus looks over at him, surprised, he had been staring at the floor. “You’re the man. The man from 1923. You know the voidfish.”

“Well, yeah.” Magnus nods, rubbing his arms. He’s smiling, sort of. “But so do you, really. It was very eager to see you again, y’know, it’s never tipped my boat over before.” Taako is confused, so confused. It must show because Magnus sighs. “I’ll explain. You should be getting the memories back now because the voidfish, I guess it happened when it touched you, but it’ll be easier if I help it. Barry and Lup are in the other room by the way, asleep, they didn’t like, die or anything.”

“Okay?” Taako offers. He’s unsure of what’s going on. He’s unsure of where he is. 

“The voidfish has been here for a long, long time.” Magnus begins. “It showed up in 1923 and a few years after that, things… Changed. So many people knew about it, it was becoming almost a tourist attraction. It never wanted that kind of attention, you know? So, it consulted me, sort of, and it shut the town off. I think it created a pocket dimension, but I’m not really sure. Anyone who had ever heard of the voidfish forgot. Any information about the voidfish outside of the town was just unreadable. No one knew, except for the people that lived here. And we don’t really leave, you know, there’s no reason to, really. We all like it here. We have family here. The voidfish does so much, it keeps us young, it keeps us happy, we provide it with friendship in return. Friendship and stories and information. We love it, it loves us. But then it got sick. It didn’t surface as much. The borders between our town and the world became… Blurred to say the least. Things could cross over, animals mostly, not people. The voidfish surfaced less and less. We had a meeting. We deemed it best that our most trusted, our smartest friends go and study and learn and try to figure out what was happening. That was nine years ago.”

And then Taako’s world comes into focus. The drapes are plum. The pictures on the mantle are of three people. Two elves and a chubby man wearing denim. 

“This is my house.” Taako says, blinking, it’s such a realization.

“You said you’d keep in contact.” Magnus looks sad, almost. “And you did, you did for a little bit. You wrote letters. But then the letters stopped. Barry got worried. He went after the two of you, he said to the last known location. But the letters from him stopped, too. We never did know if he found you. He never said.” Magnus pauses for a second, looks down. “Angus figured it out first, smart kid. He said you must’ve forgotten, it must have been erased. That there was no way you wouldn’t come back if you knew. A lot of it was childish hope, I realize now. He trusted you so much. And we believed him, I guess we all wanted to have that much hope. But he was right. He was right, and now you’re here. He was right. You did forget, but I guess not completely. You found Lucretia’s journal, the one with the story about me in 1923. You could read it, you have to have done that, you wouldn’t know otherwise. So, you forgot about us, about the voidfish and everything here, but you could still learn about it. And you did.” It feels like Magnus is knitting, knitting together the threads of everything Taako has ever done or known or seen. He’s putting everything together.

“Is the voidfish better? Did we… Did we leave for nothing?” Taako asks, his voice quiet, near breaking. This is so much. He doesn’t want this to be for nothing. He forgot so much and if that was for nothing…

“No.” Magnus shakes his head, he looks grave. “No. It’s been nine years since you left and it has only surfaced four times. It’s still sick. The borders are wavering, it is trying it’s best.”

“We’re going to find out what’s wrong with it. I know we will.” He places a hand over Magnus’. “But I have a question. Where’s Kravitz?” He remembers now, he does, and he feels so terrible. Guilty. 

“He left. To find you. But he’ll be back, he will be! Angus figured it out again, the voidfish tied a, uh, I guess a part of Kravitz’s soul to itself, so he doesn’t forget when he leaves.” Magnus reassures Taako. “But he’ll be back. He’ll be back soon, now that you’re back.” Taako smiles, widely, and then his brain, tired from all the processing, dies. He slumps back into the sofa, asleep. 

As soon as he wakes, he, Lup, and Barry get to work. They go through everything they know about jellyfish and jellyfish subsets, the periods of time where Nessie disappeared and the mercury levels during the water at that time, they go through everything that could possibly be related. Well, Lup and Taako do. Barry tries to be helpful, he really does. 

And then they figure it out. And then they know. 

They make Magnus take his boat out again, the same time as before. The water is dark and the moon is bright and the stars are shining, but aren’t reflected in the water. And then they are and the voidfish rises, tentacles reaching out. It hums, chimes, loudly. It seems happy to see them. 

Lup leans over the side of the boat, the voidfish trailing a tentacle through the strands of her hair that are draped in the water. She whispers something to it. It chimes again, and slips back beneath the water.

They wait. Magnus is all but holding his breath.

And then it surfaces again, and next to it is a smaller version of itself.

“Oh my God.” Magnus breathes, he seems amazed. “You had a baby. You have a baby? Why didn’t you tell me?” The voidfish chimes again and Magnus rolls his eyes, running a hand over the baby’s bell. 

“This baby has probably been in the polyp stage for a long while.” Taako says, reaching out his hand for the baby to latch onto. “It must have reached maturity not too long ago. Voidfish number one must have been busy taking care of this little guy. Don’t blame it too much, kids are tough, I guess. I wouldn’t know, but you’ve got to assume.”

They stay there, on the boat, for hours, the smaller voidfish seems to like Barry. It seems intent on reaching its tentacles onto the boat and untying Barry’s shoelaces. It succeeds a few times. More than a few. It’s embarassing for Barry, how many times it succeeds.

They let the voidfish retire, eventually, and Magnus steers them back to shore. Lup and Barry return to their room above the diner, they all but live there now. Magnus and Taako part ways too, Taako making his way back to his tucked away cottage. 

There’s a man standing in the doorway, holding a bouquet of flowers. They’re Taako’s favourite. He remembers that now. 

**Author's Note:**

> well that's my first taz fic! thank you for reading, i do hope you liked it! i can't vouch for the quality of this, but hey. it's here i guess. you can find me @ trans-barry.tumblr.com if you want to chat or anything. again, thank you for reading, i appreciate it !


End file.
